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Product Description

Platform: PC | Edition: Collector's Edition

Product Description

Are you a true Guild Wars 2 fan? Then you deserve the Guild Wars 2 Collector's Edition -- a feast of both physical and digital treasures worthy of a true fan to aid you in your journey through Tyria. Only a limited quantity of Collector's Editions will be made, so Pre-order your copy now.

Amazon.com

Guild Wars 2 is a subscription free,* Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game (MMORPG) exclusively for the PC gaming platform. A sequel to the original Guild Wars game released in 2005, the game is set in a persistent gameworld and features a choice based storyline focused around the continued struggles of the peoples of the land of Tyria. Now hundreds of years past the events of the original game, the almost forgotten threat of the Elder Dragons has risen, but so has 'Destiny's Edge,' a guild pledged to combat them. Game features include: a dynamic event/questing system, small and large-scale combat, player vs. player arenas, multiple playable races and professions, and expansive and rewarding dungeon crawls.

This special collector's edition contains a variety of physical and digital bonus items. See the complete list of these below.

In the Shadow of Dragons Legends Become Real

For generations, strife and chaos raged across Tyria as the great races competed and warred against each other. Then the dragons awoke. The all-powerful Elder Dragons rose from beneath earth and sea, wreaking havoc on a global scale. Great cities crumbled before their might. Coastlines flooded. Lush forests burned. Tyria was forever altered. Now, the undead legions of the deathless dragon Zhaitan surge across the land, hungry for the destruction of the free races of Tyria: the Charr, a ferocious race of feline warriors; the Asura, magical inventors of small size and great intellect; the Norn, towering shapeshifters from the frigid north; the Sylvari, a mysterious race of mystical plant folk; and the Humans, an embattled but resilient people. The time has come for the free races to stand together against the rising tide of evil. Magic, cold steel, and the deeds of heroes will determine the fate of Tyria.

Return to Tyria hundreds of years into the Guild Wars timeline to play as a new race, in a new MMORPG adventure.View larger

Assume one of a variety of professions in a choice based storyline.View larger

Key Game Features

Dynamic, Interactive Gaming Experience - Your choices and actions have a real effect on the world around you. Will the besieged villagers fight off the rampaging centaur horde or succumb to the attack? You decide.

Personalized Storylines - Guild Wars 2 is your story. Follow your own customized quest storyline as it evolves from choices you made at the beginning of the game.

New Depths of Character Customization - You choose from eight powerful professions and from five races - the defiant Humans, the feline Charr, the unearthly Sylvari, the mighty Norn, or the ingenious Asura.

I finally broke down on impulse and bought Guild Wars 2 to try and it and, boy, was that a good decision. I don't know if I will convince any of you to partake, but I really hope you do. This is my favorite game of all time, displacing Skyrim, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy VII, and it's now all I do during my gaming time. In my review, I will also hit on some WoW comparisons, because if you're like me, there will be some audience overlap. Here goes nothing:

Class Selection and DefinitionThe game calls classes "professions" and, from the beginning, each one is differentiated and engaging. I won't write about each one, but I have mostly played an engineer for now. He gets a blend of bombs, grenades, turrets to help him and allies in combat, toting a rifle or a shotgun for his own protection. The magic classes have vast arrays of spells. Every class has some type of heal, even if it's minimal, but for each class your gameplay gets you into the character you are. Warriors are rewarded for staying in combat. Engineers and ranged classes WILL get killed if they don't move. There are eight focused classes, I've tried three, and I've heard they are all great. People have not complained of an "OP class", which I'll help explain by hitting on combat.

Combat DynamicsBattles are much longer than in Warcraft and you can't really one-hit kill people. It takes a while to beat a person into submission. When a player runs out of health, they fall onto the ground and get a last chance to fight back, or call for help from allies. If you see a wounded ally down, you can pull them up. Also, if a wounded enemy is making their last call for help, you can do a finishing move to kill them for good. If you die, you restart at a waypoint that you have discovered and take a small equipment hit.

Race Selection and DefinitionThere are five races, and each is beautiful and differentiated. I have looked at three. Character design is really fun, and when you run around zones, players look really different as a result. I am playing as Charr, a cruel animal species. Each class/race combo gets its own story that is instanced. There are 40 in all (8x5). Mine involves trying to create secret plans for a weapon. The first part was an instanced fight where enemies invaded my house. It was amazing.

NPC Conversations and CutscenesThe game is loaded with conversations and cutscenes, all of which go to beautifully animated character interactions that are all spoken. They are really breathtaking.

Gear DyingYou start with a small number of dyes that you can use to change the color of your gear at any time, for free. As the game progresses, you can discover new dyes that you can learn permanently. It is really fun and allows you to give your character a really differentiated look that can change over time.

Questing StructureGuild Wars really did a great job in overhauling the traditional "gather 10 sandwiches for me" quests in wow. When you talk to NPCs, you get objectives, which, yes, track in the upper-right hand corner like in WoW. However, the number of things you need to gather and the "annoyance" - grindiness of it really is gone. You have to try it to see what I mean. Additionally, if someone else is working on the same quest and picks up things to help the objective, you get credit too. It's a really great system.

World EventsIn addition to traditional questing, when you walk around, circles will appear on the map alerting you to a group quest. These involve much harder/larger objectives that are really fun. When the objective is achieved, you are graded from nothing/bronze/silver/gold on your contributions and get gear. These are great so far and have included killing a huge warm and stopping waves of intruders from penetrating a base.

Zone Exploration and LevelingEach zone has multiple quests and objectives. You discover them organically by walking around although, it's not a "npc-find-fest" in that you can really feel free to roam and get alerts when you're near neat objectives. You don't need to hit all of them, although you get large bonuses for completing all tasks in a zone. You never have to go back to NPCs to turn things in - your quest just triggers complete when finished.

Swimming/Underwater ExplorationUsually this would be a sidenote, but it merits special talking points in Guild Wars. Underwater animation is gorgeous and, for each profession, you have a special underwater weapon. I spent 40 minutes yesterday just swimming underwater and firing my classes weapon: a torpedo launcher. The graphics work and realistic swimming interactions are great. Also, when you exit the water, you get a "splash" across your screen that fades out, a neat small touch of how you need a moment to regain vision after being deep in the water.

VistasIn each zone, there are points called vistas which you get xp for finding. These are amazing vantage points that give you a view of a particularly beautiful part of a zone. These can be hard to get to often - they will be on top of a mountain that requires delicate jumping, or they are up a path on the top of a mountain or castle. When you hit the vista, you get a cutscene showing the beautiful view of that little area plus an xp bonus. These are really fun to go after and encourage zone exploration.

XP GenerationWhile I'm at it, I should mention how much I love the xp system. You get XP for everything. You get XP for gathering wood or berries. You get XP for crafting. You get XP for pulling up fallen comrades. You get XP for kills. You get XP for completing certain number of achievements each day. It's really nice because you feel like doing ANYTHING is rewarded and it makes you choice of what to do always feel rewarding. Also, and I'll hit this in achievements, you can often build up to goals for a day or month without knowing it and it feels so awesome when a reward kicks in.

Environmental InteractionEvery environmental object means something in guild wars. If you find rocks and trees around the landscape, hiding behind them makes bullets miss you. If you have a height advantage, you hit for me. There is no clipping. The idea that literally everything you see is important and plays a role in combat decisions is wonderful. Also, the environments are each very well thought out and look gorgeous.

Character DollsGuild Wars uses a pretty standard MMO doll, but with compressed item slots. There are about 15, if I had to guess off the top of my head. Most of the usual things like head, shoulders, etc, rings, trinkets are there. A neat feature is items you can upgrade with automatically pull to a window on the left that lets you upgrade. Also, after level 7, you can have two weapons that you can toggle between using a hotkey equipped at once. It allows a really cool range of battle choices.

Talents/AbilitiesTalents are neatly broken down into three areas: abilities gained by using a weapon, class abilities, and traditional talents (player bonuses) in the Warcraft/MMO sense. For each weapon, you get abilities from 1-5 on your hotbar. You start with ability 1, the first time you pick up that weapon. As you use that ability, you unlock ability 2, then 3, etc. It is a nice delay because you get them pretty quickly, but it's just enough time that you can get used to each of the five abilities. For abilities 6-10, you unlock a choice for each slot as you level. To choose abilities for those slots, you need skill points, which you get as you level. You can unlock about 5-10 choices for each of the slots and can change between them, but you only have 10 abilities at once. I actually like this a lot better than the 20-30 ability madfest in wow, although you can alter to try different gameplay styles. For traditional talents, you get these at level 11, and you get to improve a specific area of your character. For my engineer, for example, these included bomb strength or grenade strength, as an example. The abilities you get are really neat. Right now on my engineer, I am playing with a bullet turret, medic turret and flame turret, along with the five abilities on my shotgun.

World WeaponsOn the landscape, you can sometimes find random objects to interact with, like crowbars, bottles, crates, swords of other players, etc. Many of these are things you can pick up, and they will give you five new abilities for the left side of your ability bar. It's an amazingly fun feature.

LootingLooting is similar to other MMORPGs: some, but not at all, enemies will get shiny after death and you just press f to loot them. However, for many larger world quests, you get a popup that you received gear. Also, after completing certain quests you will get mail from npcs thanking you. It's neat to get those. You can open your mail at any time on the overhead.

Gear Design / PresentationGear looks great although the level of item differentiation does not get great until higher levels, as is true in other MMORPGs. Much of the lowbie stuff looks the same, but I have seen screenpics of high level stuff and it's gorgeous.

Crafting and ProfessionsGuild Wars focuses you on just two professions. I chose cooking and leatherworking. You need to actively gather items in the landscape in order to boost most skills. The recipes and things you make are really fun. It's actually fun to craft. You can take new ingredients, experiment with combinations, and learn new recipes. You can also buy recipes in more traditional ways. Another neat thing is that when you want to craft, say, 10 of something, the first one takes a while, in the way a wow bar would take a second, but then each additional craft speeds up so it goes REALLY quickly. It sounds like a small detail but it's nice. I also like how you don't have to end your life to work on professions and it's focused. Others include jeweling and weaponry. You get XP for crafting, which is also neat.

Gems/InsertsLike in other MMORPGs, you can find gems or other special inserts for weapons with slots to improve their stats. These can be found randomly or crafted.

GatheringYou need to purchase gathering tools, which are inexpensive but have limited uses (like say 100 axes), and you can click on things in the landscape. It is really neat when you find a tree or ore that is activated and you don't have to "compete" with other players for the node. Anybody can swing at it and it's phased as each player's individual node. You do need appropriate level axes/sickles etc to gather, though. The types of things you gather are in three categories: sickled foods, herbs/trees and minerals.

AchievementsThe achievement structure is one of my favorite parts of the game. You can get achievements for SO many things. You can get achievements for killing varieties of enemies. You can get achievements for PvP. You can get achievements for picking up fallen comrades. Best of all though, in eliminating dailies, they instead have daily and monthly achievements which are broad and rewarding for more gameplay but eliminate the daily grind that so many players hate. For example, if you hit 19 daily achievements, you get a large reward. For me, this broke down to a few enemy kills, some crafting and gathering, some zone exploration, and some vistas. You also get reward for hitting your monthly achievements. And the points from your achievements give you tokens that you can use to buy gear. It's a BEAUTIFULLY executed achievement system.

Structured PvPPvP is broken down into structured PvP and World versus World PvP. Structured PvP is like most MMORPGs. You queue for an island that has battlegrounds, you queue for a match, you play one of several games, you score honor. The battlegrounds are very well made and really fun to play. The note earlier about landscape interaction makes them particularly great. In the structured mode, everybody is automatically put at the level cap (80) and given medium level gear. As you play in this mode, two things happen. First, you get an honor-like equivalent to buy better gear above your base stats. Second, you gain ranking. For me, I started as a "pup", but for each amount of honor you increase your rank. However, you do not level your base character playing structured PvP. It is its own system and the systems stay in structured PvP. This is a great mode but, personally, I get the most excited about...

World versus World PvP and a Note on Factions and Server ChoiceWorld versus World PvP!!!!! Of the many things I love about the game, this is my favorite. So, when you start the game, you choose a server. Guild Wars made a good number, so almost all are full or heavy population. Your entire "faction", re: alliance vs horde, good vs bad, is your server versus two other servers. For example, my server is called sea of sorrows. All servers are in multiples of three and each server is paired with two others that it fights in PvP. World PvP has a running, constant score between the three factions. World PvP is fought in a system of four large maps. You queue for one of the four. When you get in, you are on a HUGE map with open landscapes, castles, cottages and forts. You fight to control as many points of control as possible, but there are many objectives. You project supply caravans. You batter down castles, you defend points of control. Every 5-10 minutes, your color (there is red, green and blue to represent the three servers) scores points depending on its control, with the most points for a castle and less for a fort or small cottage area. These points go towards a larger balance that boosts some stat, like XP generation or stamina or gathering bonuses, for your entire server permanently.

The World PvP is the first game I've ever played in my life that finally meets the dreams and idea of what I had my whole life of PvP in a game. Let me give the castles as an example. When you are attacking the castle, you are literally attacking a tall, three-dimensional castle. You can attack the walls, but they are nearly impossible to take down. You can attack the gate, but you really need siege weapons to do it. To get/build siege weapons, you need supplies, from across the map, and the blueprints, which you can buy over time. Once the siege is built, you can start ramming, the wall. The range of things you can build/use to attack are amazing. On the other end, defenders can run into the castles, which look AMAZING. In the castles, you can also build fortifications with your quartermaster, including boiling oil that you can control, archers, commissioning new troops, etc. It is just so, so amazing. For each three servers, four world PvP zones are contested and, at any time, you can press B to see what the balance of the three server's fight is. The best past, though, is that it's three servers fighting and not two. It makes for a real mad fight. Also, keep in mind that each of the four zones are HUGE and that there are no mounts. I fought in a world PvP battle last night for four hours, and did not get bored for a second. I would almost buy the game just to world PvP, just to see what it's like.

InstancesInstances are really fun and dynamic and serve the large storylines. Dungeons are well instanced and they are NOT easy. You really have to pay attention and play with a good group to get through them. Highly, highly recommend. Boss fights are a thrill.

RaidsI have not seen these but I understand they are some. But, admittedly, raiding is not as big of a focus as it is in Warcraft. The big focus is on PvP.

OverflowsThey have managed to control the latency issues most games have with huge numbers of players by having this great idea called zone overflows. First, for world versus world pvp, you have to queue to get in. Mind you, even in BETA, yesterday, I waited, each time, only about 60 seconds. There is a cap so it can be completely smooth, even when you have a 50 versus 50 player battle, plus NPCs on a castle, like did yesterday. For zones, if you queue into one that is highly populated, you get put in an overflow. What this means is you can do EVERYTHING in a mirror copy of the zone that you would normally do, but other players aren't in there with you. Once the overflows clears and you are told you can enter, you immediately queue into the exact same place in the zone but the "real" one with other players. You earn all rewards and things as you would normally while in overflow. Overflow only happened to me once last night and it lasted only 15 seconds. This helps also control latency and keep everything very smooth.

Mounts/PetsThere are no mounts, but I understand there are pets, which are hard to get.

Cross-Zone TravelYou find waypoints while exploring which you can then travel back to / spawn at for a very small fee.

General Graphical PresentationEverything is amazing and it's heads-and-tails better than any MMORPG I've ever seen, both in terms of raw graphics, but also the game engines quality in controlling latency.

SoundSound effects and music are off the hook.

Combat Responsiveness / StructureYou have the ten abilities, five core to your weapon and five selected, plus you have a power bar that lets you do a quick roll or dodge in any direction. You have enough power at any time for two dodges in a row, back to back, and then it has to recharge. Health regenerates VERY quickly when you are out of combat.

GuildsGuilds are amazing. I joined one yesterday and the rewards and efforts you have are really cool. You save up guild achievements points and then queue improvements you want to build for your guild, but they take a long time. We just queued up an improvement that will take 4 days to finish. It's hard to explain but there's a scale and scope of things you can build and do with the guild that is really cool. As your guild gets better and better, it can commission weapons and armor for your whole guild which people can buy, as well as other items. It is AMAZING. You can make a guild weapon or armor that everybody in your guild can buy as standard equipment.

Paid EconomyThe game has no monthly subscription and has certain things, all completely non-necessary, that you can get for sapphires, or bought game credits. You can get cosmetic items. You can get boosts to experience or honor earned. You can buy extra bank slots. You can buy pets or other funny effects in PvP. I saw a few things I might shell out a few bucks out on for fun, but there's nothing there you have to have to do well and move on in the game.

Inventory/Bank Management and DisplayThe game automatically compresses bags and you can instantly move items used for crafting to your bank from anywhere at any time, which is awesome for saving space. You can also fast-sell junk with vendors. It also sorts all your bank items by what they are used for, in a way that's very useful and time-saving.

CostThe game is $60 with no subscription fee.

ReplayabilityI can't see myself ever getting tired of this.

ConclusionI like this game BETTER than Skyrim and, while the focus on PvE is maybe not as much as in WoW, I think the PvP is much, much, much much better. I would say, hold your breath, I honestly like this as much as WoW and it's the best PvP game I've ever played in my life. I highly recommend you get it if you have any interest and you seriously won't regret it. I know I sometimes say that and you guys roll your eyes but, seriously, if you are even thinking of WoW PvP, this BLOWS It out of the water. Buy it dudes. See you on the Sea of Sorrows server.

Top three game I've ever played, easy. Probably tied for one with WoW, and ahead of Skyrim. If you did nothing but World PvP, you would find it worth the money three times over.Read more ›

I bought the collectors Edition. Let's take a break from how awesome the game is for a second and talk about the product packaging.

This thing came into my house in a very large box. The pictures here didn't prepare me. The figure is extremely well crafted; I cannot find a single flaw. All the armor spikes are actually pretty pointy. It's very firmly in the plastic back piece kind of took a while to get him all untied, but when I did I had to sit and just stare at him for a god ten minutes, and then I realized I hadn't even looked at his back, and found his awesome tail. He's removable from the rock stand they send you, and he works with or without it.

They send you a simple picture frame in which you can place one of the five prints they send you. (One is already inside) The prints are on very nice paper.

The biggest surprise for me was the metal tin that everything else came in. From the pictures here I thought it was about the size of a normal game case, but it is far larger. Within there is a portfolio with the four prints that aren't in the picture frame, a very thick book with art from the game, the soundtrack, and the small book with the game and serial numbers.

The game itself is amazing. I'm an ex WoW player, so this game was a great change from that. You have to grind a bit as in any game, but it's masterfully disguised in this game so I never even noticed I was doing it. There are always a few public quests going on, and each individual area is very large allowing you to level up in ranges as high as fifteen levels. The skills are all pretty well thought out and it keeps combat fresh.

I cannot recommend this game enough. If you don't get the collectors edition you should still get the game.

About The Game: easily the most fun experience had since long! - the world is huge and lively, there are beautiful scenery, vivid ambient sounds, and funny npc conversations everywhere you go. - the combat is fast paced, dynamic and challenging, very fun and satisfying. - the dynamic events are a core aspect of the game that truly creates a sense of involvement and accomplishment, you have to experience it to fully understand. - almost all of the things you can do in game are every cooperation-encouraging, no kill-stealing, no fighting over gathering nodes, no competition between players in PvE. - the game is very polished, the attention to details are truly amazing. - this list can get rather long, the point in short is that this game is 120% worth getting. - the launch has had a few issues, and some players had hard times logging in due to hacked accounts or not receiving authentication emails, however, these issues are being addressed effectively by Arenanet and they claimed in their recent change logs on official wiki that they are increasing the size of their support team to speed up the resolutions. - Arenanet is acting very seriously against hackers, botters, spammers, and exploits. Since launch, there are hundreds and thousands of accounts being suspended for their first-time behaviors of botting, using inappropriate names and languages, as well as taking an unfair advantage by exploiting bugs. And they claimed that further inappropriate actions will result in permanent bans. Personally speaking, their strong attitudes are very necessary in order to create a peaceful gaming environment and community that everybody can enjoy.

About The Collector's Edition: very satisfying product. - the box is huge, and Rytlock is huge as well! - the package is neat and well designed. - the contents inside are well made and worth the collection values. - overall, this is a very satisfying product, and is worth the price.Read more ›